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LIBRARY OF THE 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
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Annual Ceremony of the Pawnee 
~ Medicine Men 


BY 
RALPH LINTON 
Assistant Curator of North American Ethnology 


AEP SHTY OF wp "HS LIBRARY 


MAY 31 1993 


FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 


CHICAGO 
1923 


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._ FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 
DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY 
CHICAGO, 1923 


LEAFLET NUMBER 8 


Annual Ceremony of the Pawnee 
Medicine Men 


A general description of the Pawnee, with an ac- 
count of their religious beliefs and social organization, 
has been given in Leaflet No. 5 of this series. Although 
geographically a Plains tribe, they differed in several 
respects from the typical tribes of the region. While 
the latter were all nomadic hunters, the Pawnee were 
settled agriculturists, inhabiting permanent towns and 
subsisting largely on their crops. When on hunting 
trips, they used the typical skin-covered tent of the 
plains, but in their towns they built large houses of 
wood covered with earth. A model of one of these 
houses is shown in the miniature group illustrating 
the annual ceremony of the Medicine Men. 

The earth lodges of the Pawnee were dome-shaped, 
about forty feet in diameter and fifteen feet high. The 
roof was supported by two concentric rows of uprights, 


T” the outer row being planted just in front of a ledge, 


©Jea3 


about a foot and a half high, which entirely surrounded 
the inside of the lodge. The outer posts, which varied 
in number according to the size of the lodge, were 
about seven feet high, and were placed about the same 
distance apart. The inner row of posts stood about 
half way between the outer wall of the lodge and its 
center, and were about twelve feet high. They varied 
in number from four to ten. All the uprights were 
forked and bore a row of cross beams, which supported 
rafters extending from the outer uprights to a point 


[53] 


2 FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 


just over the center of the lodge, where an opening 
about two feet in diameter was left as a smoke-hole. 
Long willow rods, closely spaced, were laid transversely 
over the rafters, and these in turn were covered with a 
thick layer of bunch grass. The sides of the lodge were 
built of timbers whose lower ends were planted in a 
trench, while their upper ends leaned against the cross 
beams of the outer uprights. The whole lodge was 
then covered with earth and sod. 

The entrance was protected by a covered way, 
built like the lodge, which extended out from it. In all 
but one of the Skidi villages this entrance faced -the 
east. In the center of the floor there was a circular 
fire-pit surrounded by a slight embankment. At the 
west side of the lodge, opposite the entrance, a space 
was always reserved. This space was called wiharu, 
the garden of the Evening Star, and was considered 
sacred. In it a buffalo skull was placed, facing the 
entrance, and above it the sacred bundles and other 
religious paraphernalia of the family were hung. 
Around the north and south sides of the lodges, sleeping 
platforms were built. These platforms were made of 
poles whose inner ends rested on the earth ledge, while 
their outer ends were supported by forked posts and 
beams. Over the poles were laid willow mats, coarse 
rush mats, and lastly tanned buffalo-skins. Each bed 
was screened off from those adjoining by willow mats. 
A lodge of ordinary size would have from eight to 
ten beds on a side. Those next the altar, which were 
considered most honorable, were occupied by the older 
children. Next were the beds of the aunts and uncles, 
then those of the parents, and lastly those of the old 
people. As many as ten families, all related by blood, 
sometimes occupied a single house. The sleeping plat- 
forms and other furniture were removed when the 
lodge was to be used for ceremonies, and are not 
shown in the miniature group. 


[54] 


ANNUAL CEREMONY OF THE PAWNEE MEDICINE MEN 3 


The religious ceremonies of the Pawnee were of 
two sorts, ceremonies which centered around the sacred 
bundles and were participated in by the whole village, 
band, or tribe, and ceremonies which were performed 
by societies whose members had some secret in com- 
mon. In the ceremonies of the first class, the most im- 
portant of which have been described in Leaflets 5-7, 
an appeal was made primarily to the great heavenly 
deities. In the ceremonies of the second class, the 
appeal was made to the less powerful, but more inti- 
mate earthly gods who were believed to have bestowed 
power upon the performers. Among the ceremonies 
of the second class, those of the medicine men were 
the most important. 

In every Indian tribe there were a number of per- 
sons, called medicine men by the whites, who were 
regarded as the possessors of supernatural powers 
which enabled them to recognize and cure disease. 
They were believed to have received their powers from — 
some supernatural being either as a direct gift or as 
the result of instruction by some person who had re- 
ceived such powers. Although they frequently em- 
ployed sleight of hand and other trickery to impress the 
uninitiated, many of them believed that they really 
possessed the powers attributed to them, and performed 
their ceremonies in good faith. In some cases they 
combined the functions of a shaman or priest with that 
of a healer, and thus exercised great influence over 
the people. In most of the populous tribes they were 
organized into guilds or societies. 

Among the Pawnee, the medicine men ranked 
socially next to the chiefs and priests. They usually 
wore a distinctive costume consisting of a buffalo robe 
with the hair out, a bear’s-claw necklace, and a cap of 
beaver skin. They also wore charms or amulets con- 
sisting of the tail and claws of the wild cat, badger, or 
bear, bear’s ears, miniature pipes, and downy feathers, 

[55] 


4 FIELD MuseuM OF NATURAL HISTORY 


attached to a bandoleer of beads or seeds. Instead of 
the bandoleer a gaming ring containing charms was 
sometimes worn on the arm. Each medicine man had 
a bag, generally made from the skin of an animal 
tanned whole, in which he kept his roots, paints, white 
clay, and other objects used in working his cures. The 
latter varied with the individual, but usually consisted 
of deer tails, the leg bones and claws of eagles, human 
bones, dried fingers, and very often the maw stone of 
a buffalo. The last was greatly valued, as it-was sup- 
posed to contain the life or soul of the buffalo. The 
medicine men’s bags with their contents were usually 
handed down from father to son, or were given to a 
newly initiated medicine man by his instructor. 

The methods used to work cures varied with the 
nature of the disease and the customs of the medicine 
man. Diseases of unknown origin and those ascribed 
to witchcraft could only be treated by some one who 
could work a counter spell. Such diseases were usu- 
ally eradicated by sucking a feather, small stone, 
blood, or some other object from the patient, singing 
and the shaking of a rattle being part of the perform- 
ance. The object sucked out was always thrown into 
the fire and consumed so that the seat or cause of the 
trouble could not enter again into the patient or into 
any one else. All medicine men knew more or less of 
roots and herbs, which they administered as teas or in 
powdered form. The pay of the medicine man, which 
was given him when his services were no longer re- ° 
quired, varied with the wealth of the patient. It some- 
times consisted of buffalo robes and parfleches of dried 
meat, but was more often a sack of corn or a few 
strands of dried, braided pumpkins. He was paid even 
when he failed to work a cure. 

The supernatural beings from whom the Pawnee 
medicine men derived their powers were, for the most 
part, identified with animals. Not all animals were 

[56] 


ANNUAL CEREMONY OF THE PAWNEE MEDICINE MEN 5 


able or willing to confer power, and there are some 
indications that all those recognized as guardians were 
related to one or another of the four supernatural 
beings in the west, the messengers of the Evening Star. 
It was believed that every man passed at birth under 
the influence of some supernatural being. No one 
knew who this guardian was, but he would manifest 
himself later in the man’s career. He was usually 
discovered when the man fell sick during childhood. 
Medicine men were sent for, and the guardian of the 
one who was to be able to make the cure was thereby 
- shown to be the guardian of the child. If, on reaching 
manhood, the boy desired to become a medicine man, 
he would seek to acquire powers from his guardian. 
The powers conferred by the supernatural beings 
were of three sorts, power to cure the sick, power to 
perform feats of magic, and power of a third sort, 
called pikawiu, for which there is no equivalent in 
English. Of these, the curative power was considered 
by far the most important. The ability to perform 
feats of magic was simply a tangible evidence that the 
medicine man possessed the knowledge whiche would 
enable him to cure the sick. The third sort of power © 
resembled hypnotism in some of its manifestations. 
By it the medicine man was enabled to subjugate the 
will of another to his own and to render his patient 
passive during ceremonies so that his power could go 
to the soul of the patient and remove the evil influence 
which was at the root of the disease. The pikawiu 
power was also likened to an arrow or bullet in its abili- 
ty to cut off life. Medicine men could throw this power 
into an enemy as one would shoot an arrow, and the 
individual attacked in this way was helpless until 
some other medicine man, who understood the power, 
exercised his magic to draw it out. Among the Pawnee 
there was a class of men and women, not true medicine 
men, who possessed this power and used it for evil 
[57] 


6 FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 


purposes. Their guardians were certain animals which 
were conceived of as having evil spirits. They were 
recruited from the lower classes in the tribe, and were 
feared and disliked by the better element. Like the 
medicine men, they were organized into a society, but 
nothing is known of their ceremonies. 

The Pawnee medicine men were organized into a 
number of societies which were united by certain 
secrets which they had in common. In addition to 
these secrets, which were known to all medicine men, 
but concealed from the rest of the tribe, each society 
and even each member had individual secrets. The 
oldest of these societies was that of the Pumpkin Vine 
village all of whose members were said to have origi- 
nally been medicine men. Its members derived their 
powers from a number of different guardians. In the 
other medicine societies, which were organized at a 
later date, all the members derived their powers from 
the same guardian. A man might become a medicine 
man as the result of a supernatural experience during 
which powers were conferred upon him directly by his 
guardian. Such experiences were sought through long 
continued prayer and fasting. More commonly, when 
a man desired to become a medicine man and had de- 
termined his guardian, he applied to some medicine 
man who had derived his powers from that being, and 
asked for instruction. If the medicine man believed 
him to be sincere and was willing to accept the gifts 
which he offered in payment, he received him as a pupil 
and, at the next meeting of the medicine lodge, took 
him into the lodge with him and instructed him. The 
lodge sometimes continued in session two months; and 
during this time, as part payment, the medicine man 
exercised the rights of a husband toward his pupil’s 
wife. Often a medicine man would have several pupils 
whose wives would remain with him in his booth in 
the medicine lodge. He might instruct them also if he 

[58] 


ANNUAL CEREMONY OF THE PAWNEE MEDICINE MEN x § 


wished, and in this way the women learned his secrets 
and became able themselves to practice medicine. The 
origin of the medicine societies is described in the fol- 
lowing legend :— 

“Once there was a man who lived alone, and did 
not mingle with the rest of the tribe. One night he 
had a wonderful dream. He dreamed that he stood on 
the bank of a wide river, and that a water monster 
came to the surface and spoke to him. He was so much 
impressed by this dream that he decided to seek for 
the river. He had several pairs of moccasins made, 
filled them with dried meat and parched corn, and 
started out, traveling eastward. He traveled for many 
days until he came to a great stream of water which he 
called Kits-ta-rux-ti (‘the Wonderful River’). He stood 
upon the bank looking down, and all at once the water 
monster he had seen in his dream rose to the surface. 
It was very large and long. On its head was hair of 
many colors, and around its mouth were many-colored 
feelers. It did not speak to him, but dived, and the 
man leaped into the river after it. He found himself 
in a lodge of animals. Beside the altar were an owl 
and a beaver, while all the other animals sat around in 
a circle. Near the entrance were two ponds and by 
each of these two big geese. In the west of the lodge 
sat a woman. The water monster which had led him 
to the lodge of the animals lay to the south of the 
entrance, and acted as spokesman for the other animals. 
He said, ‘My son, I come to you from the Big Waters. 
I was sent to you by Tirawa to instruct you and to tell 
these animals to instruct you in their mysteries. When 
you go home, tell your people to make an image of me 
and lay it in the lodge as I am now lying. The fireplace 
you see is not a fireplace, but a wonderful turtle. The 
woman sitting in the west is not a woman, but a thing 
of clay. She is a witch woman. The geese that stand 
by the ponds, when they flap their wings, make a noise 

[59] 


8 FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 


that can be heard in the heavens. Their noise wakens 
the gods to a remembrance of their promise to pity 
mankind and give them power.’ 

“When the water monster had told the man these 
things, the other animals came forward one by one, and 
also taught him their mysteries. When all had finished, 
the water monster told the man to go home and build 
a lodge like the lodge he was then in. He was to live 
in this lodge alone, and the water monster would come 
to him in his dreams and tell him what to do next. The 
man left the animals’ lodge and went home. He built 
himself a lodge of willows, and in it he made an image 
of the water monster. The image was complete except 
for one thing. The monster had something white on 
its head, and the man did not know what to use for this. 
In the night the monster came to him in a dream and 
told him that he must go upon a high hill and catch 
eagles. He was to dig a pit three or four feet deep and 
cover it with branches. He must then kill several rab- 
bits, skin them, and lay them on the branches. He was 
then to craw] into the hole and wait there until an eagle 
came down to seize the rabbits. 

“The man did all this and he was crouching in 
the hole when he heard a noise like the wind. He 
looked up through the branches and saw it was an 
eagle flying down to get the rabbits. When it settled 
and began to eat, the man slipped his hand between 
the branches and grasped its legs. He drew it down 
into the pit and wrung its neck, then straightened the 
branches and waited for another. After a time a 
second came, and he killed that also. Then he carried 
them home and stuck their downy white feathers on 
the head of the image with blue mud. The image was 
thus completed. 

“Every night after this the man slept in the lodge 
with the image and had dreams of the monster. In 
these dreams the monster told him how the cere- 

[60] 


ANNUAL CEREMONY OF THE PAWNEE MEDICINE MEN — 9 


monies of the medicine lodge were to be performed. At 
last it told him to prepare for another journey. He 
must go east again, but to a different place, and there 
the animals would give him many things. The next day 
the man set out and went east until he came to the place 
where Freemont, Nebraska, now is. There he camped 
on the high bank of the Platte River. 

“There was an island in the river, and the man 
saw, as soon as it was dark, that sparks of fire were 
coming up from it. He heard mysterious noises of 
drumming, singing and shouting, and then the rhythm 
of a dance. In the water he could see fish swimming 
about with fire in their mouths. He watched and lis- 
tened for a long time, then he fell asleep. The island 
was another lodge of the animals, and when he awak- 
ened, he found himself inside. In the lodge he saw the 
beaver, the owl, the otter, the ermine, the bear, the 
buffalo, the wolf, the mountain lion, the wild cat, and 
all sorts of birds. He stayed with them for many 
days, and they taught him more mysteries. At 
last they told him to go to a nearby hill where 
they had cleared a site for a medicine lodge. 
The deer led him from the animals’ lodge and put him 
safe on the dry land. When he came to the place for 
the medicine lodge, he found everything ready. All the 
animals had cleared away the grass. The badgers had 
dug the holes for the posts, the beavers had cut them 
down and peeled them, and the bears and mountain 
lions had carried them up the hill. The animals helped 
him to raise the framework and told him how to lay on 
the willows and grass and cover the whole with earth. 
They then told him to return to his village and to tell 
the chiefs to bring the people to the new place, which 
had been selected for them by the animals. 

“When the man arrived at the village, he sent 
some one to ask the chiefs to come to his lodge. When 
they had entered it, he told them that he had a mes- 

[61] 


10 FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 


sage for them from the animals. They were to bring 
the village to the new place. The man told what the 
animals had done for him, and how they had built a 
new kind of house, and wanted the people to live in 
houses of this sort and keep in them the sacred things 
which they would give them. Before the animals made 
this house, the Skidi did not know how to build earth 
lodges. The chiefs listened to him and were glad. 
They said they would obey the animals. 

“That night the man dreamed that, before the 
tribe set out for their new home, they must tear down 
the walls of his willow lodge and take the image of the 
monster and set both up in the river, just as they had 
been set up on dry land. By this they would show the 
animals in the water that they were trying to do as 
they had been told. When they had done this, they 
broke camp and moved down the river to the new place. 
They made their camp just to the east of the lodge the 
animals had built. All the people helped him to finish 
it in the way the animals had told him. When it was 
completed, he burned sweet grass in it to make it a 
sweet-smelling place. 

“That night there were great noises heard in the 
island which was close to the village. The man waited 
in the new lodge, and the animals came and told him 
what to do next. They said that opposite the entrance 
of the lodge was to be the holy place. He was to dig 
a fire place and model around it a turtle with its head 
toward the east, its tail toward the west, and its legs 
toward the four world quarters. He was to make an- 
other image of the monster and lay it with its head and 
tail near the entrance and its body running around the 
lodge. He was also to make an image of the witch 
woman, like that he had seen in the first animals’ lodge, 
and place it in the west. Lastly he was to tell the 
people to kill different kinds of birds and hang their 
skins from the posts of the lodge. The people helped 

[62] 


ANNUAL CEREMONY OF THE PAWNEE MEDICINE MEN 11 


him to do all these things. When the lodge was ready, 
he went down to the river and waited until night. The 
animals took him into their lodge once more, and there 
he saw the loon standing in front of the altar and 
several loon skins lying at one side. The animals gave 
these to him and told him how they were to be set up, 
and taught him certain songs he was to sing. 

“The man lived alone in the lodge for a long time. 
The animals came to him from the river at night and 
took him around over the country, showing him the 
different roots and herbs and telling him their uses. 
After a while he invited a few other men to come to 
his lodge and instructed them in the mysteries which 
had been taught him by the animals. In this way they 
also became medicine men. They stayed in the lodge, 
and whenever they went out, they painted themselves 
with blue clay and put eagle-down on their heads. Two 
of their number were selected as messengers and serv- 
ants. One of these wore the skin of the magpie, and 
the other that of a muskrat for the magpie and musk- 
rat were the errand men of the animals’ lodge. 

“In the autumn, when the crops had been gathered, 
and many buffalo had been killed, these first medicine 
men invited other men of the tribe to come to the lodge 
and learn the mysteries. These men were told to leave 
the village, purify themselves, and fast for four days. 
When they came to the medicine lodge, the man who 
had built it sang a song and recited a ritual, and then 
told them to go to the river bottom and cut young wil- 
lows and cotton woods. One man he sent to the east to 
cut a cedar tree. They brought the trees to the lodge 
and with the willows and cottonwoods they made little 
lodges around the inside of the large building. The 
' cedar tree was set up to the north of the entrance, and 
a little lodge of cedar bows was built on the south side. 
When the lodges were finished, the leader of the medi- 
cine men called a man from each lodge to him and 

£63} 


12 FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 


gave him the skin of the animal. which was to be the 
guardian of that lodge. The men stayed in the little 
lodges, fasting and singing until they fell from ex- 
haustion, and went to sleep. When this happened, the 
leader took the skin of the animal to whose lodge the 
man belonged and laid it on him. This animal would 
tell the man in a dream what he was to do. When he 
awoke, he would tell his dream and would find that he 
could do this thing. | 

“After this had gone on for some time, the 
leader selected a night to have the mysterious dance. 
Before they commenced, he stood in front of the altar 
of loon skins, given him by the animals, and called the 
men to him one by one. He embraced each and breathed 
into his mouth. Then he went and sat by the altar. 
He had taught them a song, and now each man put on 
the skin of his guardian animal and began to sing this 
song and dance. At a certain place in the song every 
one of them fell to the ground as if shot. When the 
song was ended one of the men got up. He saw some- 
thing lying beside him that looked like a small ovai 
fragment of clear ice. Each of the other men found a 
thing of the same sort beside him, and all of them laid 
these things in a line on the west of the fire place. The 
leader told them that these things had been given to 
them by the animals. They must swallow them, and 
then they would have the power to hypnotize and in- 
fluence the people. They did this and returned to their 
small lodges. 

“They stayed in the big lodge for several days 
more, trying their powers and doing all sorts of sleight 
of hand. When the last day of the ceremony came, 
they all dressed up according to the animal that was 
their guardian. They went out and marched around 
the lodge once, with two men carrying loon skins 
from the altar in the lead. Then they entered the lodge 
again and crowded around the fire place, stamping to 

[64] 


—————Oo 


ANNUAL CEREMONY OF THE PAWNEE MEDICINE MEN 13 


awaken the turtle. Then they passed out of the lodge, 
dancing, and each man imitating his guardian animal. 
As they went, they did all sorts of sleight of hand so 
that the people could see they had magic powers. When 
they had shown their powers to the people, they 
entered the lodge once more and sang songs and imi- 
tated the cries of their guardians. They made a great 
commotion so that the people outside could see ashes 
flying up through the smoke-hole. That night they did 
more sleight of hand tricks in the lodge, and sang and 
worked magic until about two o’clock in the morning. 
Then they tore down the little lodges and carried them 
and the images of the water monster and witch woman 
down to the river. As they went along, they shouted 


and sang and hypnotized one another. They threw the 


mysterious things that gave them hypnotizing power 
into one another, and the men who were struck fell 
down as if shot. The rest of the village looked on, and 
were mystified by the wonderful things they did. When 
they came to the river, they put the little lodges and the 
images in the water in the positions they had had in the 
big lodge. 

“When they had returned to the medicine lodge, 
the leader told them that they were to hold dances in 
the winter and spring and after the first thunder, but 
they were not to show their powers or do sleight of 
hand at these times. The great dance was to be in the 
fall, and then they would do sleight of hand, and work 
magic of all sorts and renew their powers. He told 
them to go back to their families and build themselves 
earth lodges like the medicine lodge. He went on living 
alone in the medicine lodge. 

“The people lived in that place for a long time, and 
every fall they built new images in the medicine lodge 
and had their ceremonies. Each time the ceremonies 
lasted two or three months. Other men found other 
animals who gave them powers; and when the lodge 

[65] 


14 FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 


was in session, they would come in and ask the medicine 
men to-help them, and they would give them a place in 
the lodge. In this way the society grew. People from 
other bands also heard about it and came begging to 
learn the mysteries. The medicine men taught them, 
and they went back to their own people and started 
other medicine lodges.” 


The ceremonies of the historic medicine lodge 
agreed in a general way with those last described in 
the legendary account of its origin, but there were 
several features not mentioned in the story just given. 
The preparations for the great fall ceremony were 
begun while the people were still on the spring buffalo 
hunt. At this time the leading medicine men selected 
two members of the society to make two bows and four 
arrows. When these were completed, they were given 
to two other medicine men with instructions for one to 
kill a bull and the other a cow. The animals had to be 
killed with a single arrow, but it is said that because of 
the magic powers of the arrows the hunters never 
failed to do this. The bull’s hide was to be used to cover 
the head of the water-monster image, the cow’s hide 
to cloth the figure of the witch woman. Two more 
buffalo, also a bull and a cow, were then killed in the 
same way, the hide of the former being saved to make 
an image of the Morning Star, and that of the latter, to 
make nine small images which represented the im- 
portant heavenly gods. When the buffalo had been 
killed, the bows and arrows were returned to the lead- 
ing medicine men who placed them among their sacred 
objects. 

On the return from the hunt, the four leading 
medicine men went to the medicine lodge and ordered 
that it be cleared for the ceremony. The same lodge 
seems to have been used for the ceremony year after 
year, but was occupied as a dwelling between cere- 


[66] 


*G TIVH ‘6 ASVO NI dNOYD SYNLVININ 
“SANMVd ‘39007 ANIOIGSW 4O HOINSLNI 


ANNUAL CEREMONY OF THE PAWNEE MEDICINE MEN 15 


monies. All the beds and other furniture were carried 
out by the women, and the floor swept. When this had 
been done, the medicine men seated themselves in front 
of the lodge altar and sent their errand men to notify 
the other members of the society. After these had 
arrived and taken their places, the leaders went to each 
of them in turn and directed them, in a whisper, to » 
prepare for the ceremony by a four-day fast. Each 
man, when he received this notification, returned to his 
own lodge, took his medicine bag, and left the village 
to spend that time in solitary fasting and prayer. At 
the expiration of the fast they bathed in the river and 
returned to the medicine lodge, where each took his 
appointed place. 

The following morning, all the members of the 
society went to the river bottom to cut willows and 
cotton woods for the small booths which were to be 
built inside the large lodge. When they reached the 
timber, one of the two leading medicine men prayed 
and offered smoke to the heavenly gods, while the other, 
after he had finished, paid the same honors to the 
earthly gods. When this had been done, the timbers 
were cut and carried back to the main lodge, and the 
booths built. 

The next morning the image of the water monster 
was made, the leaders assigning to different men the 
task of getting the things needed and making the 
different parts. This image was nearly sixty feet in 
length and encircled the lodge, with its head and tail on 
either side of the entrance. The framework was made 
of pieces of ashwood lashed together with sinew. Over 
these a layer of grass was laid, and the whole covered 
with mud which was smoothed and painted in different 
colors. The mouth of the figure was so large that a 
man could crawl into it, and was provided with pointed 
teeth, also of ashwood. On each side of the mouth, 
long, slender willow-rods were stuck to represent 

[67] 


16 FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 


feelers. The head was covered with a black-dyed 
buffalo robe and painted and decorated with downy 
feathers. The image of the turtle, in the center of 
which was the fire place, and that of the witch woman, 
were made the next day. The woman’s image con- 
sisted of a willow frame covered with grass and sur- 
faced with clay. The features were modeled, and the 
eyes were made with pumpkin seeds blackened in the 
center. A buffalo scalp was placed on the head, and 
to this were attached long braids of human hair which 
hung down to the knees. The figure was dressed in a 
buffalo robe. 

When the images had been made, a ceremony was 
held by which each of the medicine men received power 
from either the monster or the witch woman. Some 
chose one, and some the other. On the day following, 
they went to cut the cedar tree which was to be placed 
just inside the entrance. When they found a suitable 
tree, they formed a circle around it, prayed to it, made 
presents to it of robes and other things, and finally 
took power from it. When this had been done, they cut 
it down. As it fell, they began to hypnotize each other 
and work sleight of hand. They then picked it up and 
carried it back to the village singing. As they neared 
the village, a second party of medicine men came out to 
meet them, and began to hypnotize them and try to 
drive them back. The party with the tree were more 
powerful, and gradually drove the others back to the 
edge of the village. There the tree was laid down, and 
all the people came and threw offerings on it. These 
offerings were gathered up, and were finally given to 
the medicine men. The tree was then taken to the lodge 
and set up, and its branches were covered with white 
downy feathers. That night they made the images of 
the Morning Star and the heavenly gods. These were 
flat pieces of hide, cut in the outline of a man. The 
image of the Morning Star was fastened to a long pole 

[68] 


ANNUAL CEREMONY OF THE PAWNEE MEDICINE MEN 17 


and raised above the smoke-hole just before the star 
rose. The other images were fastened to the tops of 
the main posts or on a cord running across the upper 
part of the lodge. 


It is uncertain at what stage in the ceremony the 
altar of loon skins was set up, but it seems to have 
been after the various images had been made. The 
sticks bearing the skins were thrust in the ground on 
the west side of the lodge, and the space between them 
sprinkled with water and then covered with downy 
feathers. When this had been done, the leader of the 
medicine men raised his face to the sky and cried, 
“Father, the water birds and the water, their dwelling- 
place, now stand on the altar. Give us plenty of rain 
this summer.” Then dropping his voice to a whisper 
and bowing down to the ground, he said, “Mother 
Earth, the water birds and the water, their dwelling- 
place, are now upon you. Let our crops grow so that 
we may be fed.” When he had done this, he went 
outside the lodge and called upon all the gods to give 
power to the loons so that they, in turn, could give 
power to the people. 


At dawn of the day following that on which the 
last of the images had been made and set up, the vari- 
ous medicine men dressed themselves to represent 
their guardian animals and marched, in order of the 
importance of their guardians, around the outside of 
the lodge and then around the inside. They did this 
four times, dancing and imitating the cries and actions 
of their guardians. They then held a feast in the 
lodge. That night they once more marched out in pro- 
cession and visited all the lodges which contained 
sacred bundles, dancing in each. When they had re- 
turned to the medicine lodge, the leaders selected cer- 
tain medicine men to go through the village once more, 
visit every lodge, and report if any one was sick. When 


[69] 


18 FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 


the report had been made, other men were sent to 
cure them. 

The next morning, a number of women were sum- 
moned to the medicine lodge and told to go into the 
timber and get loads of wood. When they returned 
with their burdens, they were brought into the lodge, 
fed, and instructed in some of the mysteries. Then 
they returned to their homes. In the afternoon the 
medicine men once more dressed to imitate their 
guardians and came out of the lodge, dancing and per- 
forming various sleight of hand tricks. The favorite 
trick seems to have been to thrust long rods down 
their throats. They repeated the outside performance 
four times. That evening they built a great fire in- 
side the lodge and invited all the people to an exhibi- 
tion of sleight of hand. These performances were re- 
peated every night for a month or more, and it was 
during this time that new medicine men were initi- 
ated. 

When a man desired to join the medicine lodge, 
he told his relatives and friends, and they helped 
him to gather property of all sorts. When he had 
enough, he went to the lodge, taking the gifts with 
him, and approached the man from whom he wanted 
to learn the mysteries. He passed his hands over 
the man’s head and arms and said, “Medicine man, 
I am poor. I stand before you a poor man wanting 
to learn the mysteries you possess. Look upon these 
gifts which I have brought you.” When he had done 
this, he presented the medicine man with a filled 
pipe. If the latter was willing to teach him, he ac- 
cepted the pipe and took the young man into his 
booth with him. 

At the conclusion of the ceremonies, the booths 
and images were removed from the lodge, carried 
down into the bed of the river and placed in the 
shallow water in the same relative positions they had 

[70] 


ANNUAL CEREMONY OF THE PAWNEE MEDICINE MEN 19 


occupied in the lodge. As the procession went down 
to the river, the medicine men mesmerized one an- 
other, and performed sleight of hand. It was cus- 
tomary, before the witch woman’s image was placed 
in the water, for some woman among the bystanders 
to remove all her clothing and ornaments and place 
them upon it. When this ceremony was finished, 
they returned to the medicine lodge, offered smoke to 
the animal gods, and sprinkled the floor of the lodge 
with water to cleanse it and free it from the powers 
that had been summoned there during the cere- 
mony. After the lodge had been purified in this 
way, the medicine men held a feast and returned to 
their homes. The two medicine men to whom the 
altar belonged remained behind to take it down and 
roll the various objects up in the bundle in which 
they were kept between ceremonies. This com- 
pleted the ceremony, and the owners of the lodge 
were free to live in it as before. 

In addition to the serious performers in the medi- 
cine men’s ceremonies there were certain men, called 
kitscoa, who acted as clowns. They wore masks made 
from corn husks, rawhide, wood, and feathers, dressed 
grotesquely, and daubed their bodies with mud. It 
seems to have been their duty to perform strange antics 
during the ceremonies to amuse the people, and par- 
ticularly to imitate in a mocking spirit the serious 
acts of the others. They were said to represent hairy 
dwarfs or supernatural beings who had mysterious 
ways and of whom the people were afraid. Similar 
clowns play an important part in the ceremonies of 
some of the Pueblo tribes. 

The function of the medicine men’s ceremonies 
was threefold. By them they renewed their powers, 
drove disease from the village, and, by means of their 
sleight of hand performances, convinced the people 
that they really possessed the supernatural powers at- 

[71] 


20 FIELD MusEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 


tributed to them. The ceremonies also possessed cer- 
tain social functions, for the spectators included wo- 
men and children as well as men. 

This account has been compiled from the unpub- 
lished notes of Dr. G. A. Dorsey. 


RatPeH LINTON 


QNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIDRARY 
MAY 31 1993 


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